Good morning. Here’s the latest from around the lacrosse world:
1. The Ivy League’s indecision about spring sports and the looming specter of another lost season has prompted a rebuke from Yale lacrosse star TD Ierlan as well as a petition from the Brown men’s and women’s lacrosse teams.
Ierlan, the NCAA record-setting faceoff specialist, entered the NCAA transfer portal Wednesday. When Inside Lacrosse broke the news, he called it a “backup plan.” But Ierlan sounded much more resolute in an interview with US Lacrosse Magazine’s Matt Hamilton, in which he entertained the notion of reuniting with former Yale teammates Jackson Morrill and Lucas Cotler at Denver and criticized the Ivy League for not doing more to get student-athletes back on the field.
“It’s been 10 months” since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ierlan said, “and they don’t have a plan of attack.”
Meanwhile, the Brown men’s and women’s lacrosse teams have started a joint change.org petition with the hashtag #LetTheLeaguePlay. In an letter addressed to Ivy League executive director Robin Harris and posted on Instagram, the teams noted that every Division I conference except the Ivy League is currently playing sports and that similarly elite academic institutions like Duke, Georgetown and Johns Hopkins have found ways to safely resume competition.
The Ivy League fallout started last year with a wave of transfers who left their schools when the league declared it would not accommodate fifth-year players despite the extra eligibility afforded by the NCAA and continued with the preemptive decision by many Princeton men’s and women’s lacrosse players to take leave from the university.
The Ivy League, which canceled winter sports, sent an email to all spring sports student-athletes and coaches last week stating that “there must be significant changes in the state of the pandemic before competition becomes feasible.” A decision on spring sports is expected sometime in February.
2. Our 2021 NCAA Preview rollout continued with scouting reports on the No. 12-ranked Ohio State men and Denver women, respectively, as well as the release of the Nike/US Lacrosse Division III Men’s Preseason Top 20.
3. US Lacrosse clinician Rick Burton is the latest subject of our content partnership with Blaxers Blog. Writer Brian Simpkins chronicles the story of a Baltimore-born Air Force veteran and unlikely lacrosse mentor.
WHAT WE’RE READING
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The MAAC is back. Conference presidents have approved schedules for spring sports, with competition starting no sooner than March 6.
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From Inside Lacrosse’s “The Players’ Issue,” Duke’s Anna Callahan penned a first-person piece on mental health, sexuality, identity and other social topics in her story entitled “Unapologetically Myself.”
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Houghton College has discontinued its NCAA Division III men’s and women’s lacrosse programs.
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Where Penn State women’s lacrosse can improve heading into the 2021 season, via the Daily Collegian.
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KPTV’s spotlight on Kent State commit and Tualatin (Ore.) two-sport star Sidney Dering, whose brother’s bout with otopalatodigital syndrome spectrum has inspired her to go pre-med. She wants to become a pediatrician.
WHAT WE’RE WATCHING
“It’s all right here.” (Points to heart.)
“No soup for you, he says.”
“I don’t care what your motivation is — whether it’s your family, you’ve got a vendetta against somebody, you’ve got something to prove. I don’t care what the chip is as long as you’ve got one. Empty it right now. The tank gets emptied right now.”
New Johns Hopkins defensive coordinator Jamison Koesterer is miked-up gold.
Coach @JLKoesterer Mic'd Up #WiredWednesday pic.twitter.com/8j0SithxuA
— JHU Men's Lacrosse (@jhumenslacrosse) January 20, 2021
WHAT’S ON TAP
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Our 2021 NCAA Preview rollout continues with scouting reports on the No. 11-ranked Georgetown men and Penn women, as well as the release of the Nike/US Lacrosse Division III Women’s Preseason Top 20.